OKC Thunder – Celtics preview: Rivalry built on dramatic finishes
The OKC Thunder will be playing the second game of a back-to-back set in Boston having played the front side in Milwaukee on Friday.
The Bucks built a 20-point lead that the Thunder cut to two points three separate times in the final frame but that was as close as they could get.
In a bit of good fortune, the Celtics will also be playing their second game of a back-to-back set having played the Lakers on Friday.
Will OKC Thunder – Celtics serve up another dramatic game?
The Celtics entered the match versus the Lakers having lost to the Hawks but facing their greatest NBA rival quickly got back in the win column.
Facing their greatest rivals Boston fell behind early but they erased a 14 point LA lead to take a 25 point lead and go on to win the match.
To assume the Bean Town crew would be fooled into thinking this is a trap game would be naive. Particularly if you look back upon recent history when there have been some really crazy end game situations.
In 2018, there was the 24-second Celtics rally when they were trailing by six and came back to win the match 100-99 on a Marcus Morris 3-point prayer.
The Celtics trailed by 5 with 16.8 seconds to go and won.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) March 21, 2018
Entering today, teams were 0-884 this season when trailing by 5 or more points in the final 20 seconds of the game. pic.twitter.com/pgZ87K2gbv
The Chris Paul iteration of the OKC Thunder incurred two wild games that season with the Celtics winning the first match 112-111 in OKC. The road game in Boston was even wilder as Boston appeared to have the game in hand before the clutch time crew took over.
More accurately, the Point God intervened. With Boston up 104-103, Steven Adams missed two free throws but CP3 grabbed the rebound only to miss a shot in his office – – two feet from the basket that he typically makes with his eyes closed. It was Celtics’ ball with 13.8 on the clock.
But, on the inbound play by Marcus Smart to Kemba Walker he spun toward the basket with CP3 and Dennis Schroder (who now plays for the Celtics) trapping him to force the turnover which Schroder scooped up and laid in to take a one-point lead with 8.5 remaining on the clock.
To cap the victory, the 5’11 guard defended and stood up Jayson Tatum on the final shot forcing a wild attempt. OKC won the match 105-104. It was one of my favorite clutch-time victories of that season.
Last year on the precipice of setting a new franchise record in futility, Luguentz Dort found out pre-game if they lost in Boston it would be their 15th in a row and that 2020-21 roster would own that record alone. The Canadian made a point of telling Shai GIlgeous-Alexander (who was already sidelined with the plantar fasciitis) “we’re not losing”.
Dort went on to lead a starting unit of Theo Maledon, Aleksej Pokusevski, Darius Bazley, and Moses Brown to a 119-115 victory needing to hold off Boston in clutch time.
Those are just a few of the recent games between these clubs but suffice to say, every time the Celtics and Thunder tip-off it’s just one of those matchups where I expect something dramatic to happen.